Could Sidney Rice return to Seattle?

The Seahawks released receiver Sidney Rice in an expected cost-cutting move earlier this offseason, but at the time Pete Carroll left open the possibility of Rice—as well as Red Bryant, who was also released—coming back.

“Maybe we have a chance to get them back, maybe we don’t,” Carroll said earlier this month. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

There was a market for Bryant, who was quickly signed by Jacksonville, but Rice, who is coming off a serious knee injury and has had a long series of injuries throughout his career, has not yet found a new home. And now that the Seahawks lost Golden Tate in free agency, bringing Rice back would seem to make sense, so it came as no surprise when the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Thursday evening that the Seahawks are indeed interested in bringing Rice back.

This is an interesting twist. I’m told the #Seahawks are now interested in re-signing WR Sidney Rice, a salary cap casualty.

If the price is right, the move absolutely makes sense for the Seahawks, who are now a bit thin at receiver following Tate’s decision to sign with Detroit. If Rice is healthy, a huge if, he would give the Seahawks size at receiver that they don’t have. Rice tore his ACL in October, and even before that didn’t appear to be at full speed having gone to Switzerland for treatment on his knee during training camp.

Obviously the Seahawks won’t spend big to bring Rice back, but if there isn’t much of a market for him given his injury history—Rice missed the end of the 2011 season after multiple concussions, then had surgery on both shoulders that offseason, the suffered the knee injury last year—he could be a relatively inexpensive risk worth taking for Seattle.